Minutes of the Meeting of the Deans Council
Tuesday, February 1, 2005 – 9 a.m.
Warner Conference Room
PRESENT: Finnie Murray, Lois Flagstad, Galen Hadley, Marilyn Hadley, Janet Wilke for Larry Hardesty, Frank Harrold, and William Jurma
ABSENT: Ken Nikels
- Kim Schipporeit RE Second Baccalaureate Degrees: Kim Schipporeit came to clarify UNK’s policy on baccalaureate degrees for the Deans. To obtain a second degree before a student has graduated and their record has been sealed, students need to complete 30 hours beyond what is required for the first degree. If alums finish a second major within a year, a notation to that effect will be placed on their transcript. If elapsed time is longer than that, transcripts will not show such a notation. Students are eligible to return to UNK and receive a different degree but the institution will not award the same degree twice. The Registrar has found this to be the standard in higher education.
Although a student may obtain both a B.A. and a B.S., when a student returns to college after obtaining a baccalaureate degree, the student would typically be encouraged to do post-graduate work, i.e., MSW in Social Work or MBA.
In some cases, students need evidence of completion of a degree to secure work credentials. The Registrar’s office can write a letter to help explain the circumstances and assist the student with a licensure process. The Registrar is not aware of any difficulties experienced by students with respect to this process.
- Priority Funding: Senior VC Murray distributed a handout on priority fund requests and the “continuing” projects that would be funded next year. Per the VCBF, there is no ability to carry over funds to the next biennium. Deans were asked to have their requests for additional projects to Dr. Murray via e-mail by Monday, February 21. Decisions as to which additional projects will be funded should be made by March 1. Dr. Murray will then review the needs; prioritize, and then distribute when funds are received (perhaps in July).
- Honorary Degree Nominations: The Deans advised that all Honorary Degree nominations have been submitted to Dr. Murray.
- Other: The SrVCAA has received several complaints from students, including one from a student who wanted a change in the policy we use wherein an A+ and A are both counted as 4.0 in determining GPA. Another involved a student teacher who wanted a refund of fees because she would not be on campus this semester. Still a third dealt with an engineer looking to obtain a teaching endorsement and finding that three basic math courses would be required.
The University Board of Regents will be at UNK on March 4. Business Meeting is set to begin at 8:30 a.m.; then the campus visit. The Deans were asked for ideas involving faculty projects and student presentations to cover a two-hour time frame. Dinner that evening will be at the Rowe Sanctuary to see UNK Rowe Discovery Lab.
Larry Hardesty asked if it would be possible for the Director of the Library to interview applicants for tenure-track faculty positions. The Deans agreed to that, and they will advise their chairs.
The Deans also talked about possibly having Cheryl Bressington do a survey of the UNK interview process wherein recently hired faculty would have the opportunity to identify weaknesses in our interview process from their point of view—anyone on campus they wished to talk to, but were not given the opportunity.
Finnie Murray and Larry Hardesty were quite impressed with the Interior Design students in Phyllis Markussen’s class that took part in the planning and presentation of possible Library redesign in the areas of the main foyer, special collections, sculpture area, and newspaper area.
Our Human Resource office has conveyed their concern on our lack of faculty training in the area of sexual harassment. New Faculty/Staff Orientation for Fall 2005 will include a session on sexual harassment. Deans will work with department chairs to be proactive in these efforts. Current faculty can plan to attend sessions at College meetings as well as at a makeup time.
There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned. The next meeting of the Deans will be on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 at 9 a.m. in the Warner Conference Room.